Kategorie: Meine Geschichte

In the last few years „music“ became essential in the fitness world. Running, cycling and even swimming headphone on.
But what happens if you press the stop button?
This is what I did in my today’s interval Spinning class. I motivated my class to do a few very intense interval (2-5 mintutes) „alone“.
Probable 50% of my group hated the idea (mostly women) and the rest loved it (mostly men).

So why is this? Exercise without music makes you feel naked.

Without distraction your brain immediately tries to start thinking – without a useful result. Some see this a challenge and are trying to focus, the others are not able to handle the „silence“ and the brain becomes stronger and stronger and finally the output is: „This is stupid“.
This progress is may personal but as well depending on your „day“, your training status, your gender etc..

But it is a great exercise. So give it a try the next time you exercise, drive, walk, work etc.

Last week I had a few amazing lunch-meetings with start-ups to discuss marketing strategies and „how to reach a larger audience“.
With the rise of genius frameworks and amazing prototyping software like marvel and invisio it is even easier to create a digital product or service. This is great but challenges the marketing even more. How many apps and tools does an average web-user needs? And how many are available?
Sites like killerstartups.com are listing hundreds of great services – but only a small number of them are gonna make it. And I learned this with my own product too…

That’s why I started to modify the well know innovation-to-market process by adding one more step: „Canvas Marketing“.
Canvas Marketing comes right after – or even before – the market-research. The idea of Canvas Marketing is to create and execute a „real“ marketing strategy and ad campaign for a „not existing product“. Canvas Marketing is close to research but within a real environment. And this is a big difference.

I made three tests:

Marketing Workshops for freelancer and small companies.
Before I even started to powerpoint the workshop I created a splashthat landingpage and up to 20 Facebook ads. The results after 2 weeks: Rate of 0.64%, no sign-ups (150USD/day).
Not a great result indeed. Sure there are a few triggers like location, date, price, targeting, ad design etc.. But I gave my best and 0.64% is definitely not a good results for Facebook Ads. I have to keep this in my mind and may find a better way or improve the product.

„Uber“ for Assets
Since a few months I am thinking about a platform for (financial-) assets. The idea is to skip the banks and create a platform where investors are able to promote their financial products and find investors. I created a professional looking page and planned a serious LinkedIn ad campaign.
Result after 1 week: Rate of 0%. Sure LinkedIn is not Facebook in terms of click rate but I definitely have to rethink this product – and talk with people working in the banking sector.

Online Certificate for Fitness Instructors
Personal trainers and group fitness instructors are well educated in health, training, nurture etc. but not in self-marketing and communication. That is why I came up with the idea of a certificate in „fitness communication“. I created a beautiful landingpage promotion the course and the certificate for USD 95. Once again I used Facebook to run a good looking ad campaign. Result: 2.01%  and tataaa: some pre-bookings! That’s is not superb but a good start…

For sure Canvas-Marketing is not 100% bulletproof but a great way to get insights and to think about how to promote an idea before it is finished. In my opinion this is the key in a digital world with thousand of great product launches every day.

A short remark about my test results: I know the fitness industry best as I work as instructor and I have no idea about asset management. Not surprising the fitness idea performed better. But I know a lot of start ups trying to create a product for an industry they don’t know – me included.
If I am doing a good job as consultant I address and help to solve this issue.

Als ich vor rund 13 Jahren mit Outsourcing in Indien, China und Rumänien angefangen habe, gehörte ich zu jenen die darin eine riesige Chance sahen. Die Jahre vergingen, viele Unternehmen schlugen am Boden auf und kehrten nach (Ost-) Europa zurück. Ich bliebt.
Miss-/Erfolg mit Outsourcing in weit entfernten und fremden Gebieten dieser Erde hat nicht’s mit unterschiedlicher Arbeitsweise sondern einzig und alleine mit interkulturellem Verständnis zu tun. Im Idealfall gibt es das auf beiden Seiten. Meist ist es aber so, dass ich mich als Besucher bzw. Auftraggeber anpassen muss. Die Vorstellung es umgekehrt zu machen, ist eine Illusion, die vielen zum Verhängnis wurde.
Anpassen heisst aber nicht, dass man vom Ziel abrücken bzw. Kompromisse bei der Qualität eingehen muss. Im Gegenteil: Man kann nur outsourcen, wenn man exakt weiss, was man will. Und an diesem Ziel gilt es festzuhalten. Der Weg dorthin führt nicht durch die Schweizer Täler sondern mitten durch die verrücktesten Gegenden dieser Erde. Nur wer das will und liebt hat Erfolg.

Jährlich gilt es einen Berg zu erklimmen. Im 2013 war es (endlich) der Beverin (Blogpost), im 2014 der Mythen – und weil letzterer so Spass macht, wagten wir und dieses Jahr nochmals in die Innenschweiz.
Das Wetter war prächtig, die Aussicht fabelhaft und die früh morgendliche Anfahrt mit dem Rennvelo von Zürich (via Ägerisee) ein wahrer Genuss. Schön war’s und bis zum nächsten Jahr.

In meinen jungen Jahren war ich wahrscheinlich etwas unvorsichtig mit meinen Knies. Dies führte dazu, dass ich nach einer Hydro Speed Session auf dem Hinterrhein mein Knie nicht mehr bewegen konnte. Im Regionalspital griff der Arzt zur ganz grossen Zange und entfernte den angerissenen Minikus grosszügig raus. Nicht ganz optimal… Von da an warnen mich alle vor der Artrose. Sehr hilfreich :D Ich setzte jedoch – neben Training – meine ganze Hoffnung in die Technologie. Und einmal mehr hat’s sich’s gelohnt!

3D Drucker sei dank, gelang es vor kurzem einen Meniskus zu printen. Morgen rufe ich meinen Arzt an!

Columbia University Medical Center researchers have devised a way to replace the knee’s protective lining, called the meniscus, using a personalized 3D-printed implant, or scaffold, infused with human growth factors that prompt the body to regenerate the lining on its own. The therapy, successfully tested in sheep, could provide the first effective and long-lasting repair of damaged menisci, which occur in millions of Americans each year and can lead to debilitating arthritis.